For more than five years, the dedicated men and women of the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) worked vigorously to modernize the failing U.S. national security system. Alert to the dangers of the current antiquated system, PNSR’s staff analyzed the sources of dysfunction and inefficiency and formulated bold fixes to transform the system for read more

WASHINGTON, DC – The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) released today a new report, “The Legal Affairs Roundtable Series on National Security Transformation.” It calls on the legal community, especially the American Bar Association, to “contribute their authoritative voice[s] to the public debate on needed changes” to the national security system. The report represents read more

WASHINGTON, DC – The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) today released “America’s First Quarter Millennium: Envisioning a Transformed National Security System in 2026,” a paper prepared by Christopher Holshek, PNSR Senior Associate. Holshek will present ideas from the paper at today’s National Defense University symposium, “Forging an American Grand Strategy.” The paper encompasses many read more

WASHINGTON, DC – James R. Locher III, President and CEO of the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR), said he was “really proud” on Monday, May 2 after hearing about the successful raid on Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs the day before. Locher, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low read more

The Project on National Security Reform shares its legacy

The Project on National Security Reform ceased operations on December 31, 2011. This website records PNSR's history and work.

The transpartisan Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) was established in 2006 to assist the nation in an urgently needed transformation of the national security system. It was a single focus think tank dedicated to modernizing the currently antiquated national security system for 21st century challenges. PNSR envisioned a collaborative, agile, and innovative syste capable of integrating all elements of national power - both vertically and horizontally - and successfully addressing security challenges based on timely, informed decisions and decisive action.

To advance its agenda, PNSR developed a broad and diverse network of public and private partners and participants with expertise and experience in traditional and nontraditional security threats and opportunities. The first phase of PNSR’s work focused on identifying problems and formulating recommendations. Subsequently, it focused on developing tools for implementation and applying its holistic principles for long-term reform to many of today’s problems. This second phase provided a deeper understanding of the intellectual and political challenges of system transformation.

The project was led by James R. Locher III, a principal architect of the Goldwater-Nichols Act that modernized the joint military system. PNSR’s Guiding Coalition, comprised of distinguished Americans with extensive service in the public and private sectors, set strategic direction for the project. A dedicated staff that included national security veterans, as well as the brightest and best new talent, worked tirelessly on its critical mission. Although the political environment was not right to implement large-scale change, PNSR had a variety of incremental successes and significantly influenced the prevailing narrative on national security reform.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) announced today that the Honorable Robert M. “Bob” Kimmitt has joined PNSR’s Guiding Coalition of senior national security practitioners. Following his service as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (2005-09), Mr. Kimmitt rejoined the law firm WilmerHale, where he serves as a senior international counsel. He is also Independent Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Cross-Border Investment.

Mr. Kimmitt has had a distinguished career in government and the private sector. He was posted as Ambassador to Germany (1991-93) and served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1989-91), General Counsel for the U.S. Treasury (1985-87), and Executive Secretary and General Counsel of the National Security Council (1983-85). Mr. Kimmitt also served in the U.S. Army, including a combat tour in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and retired as a major general in the Army Reserve. During 1997, Mr. Kimmitt was a member of the National Defense Panel, and from 1998 to 2005 he was a member of the Director of Central Intelligence’s National Security Advisory Panel.

In the private sector, Mr. Kimmitt held senior positions in three businesses: Vice Chairman and President of Commerce One, a software company; Executive Vice President for Global Public Policy at Time Warner, Inc.; and managing director at Lehman Brothers. He had first joined WilmerHale in 1997, serving for three years as a partner focused on international matters.

Of Mr. Kimmitt’s membership on the Guiding Coalition, PNSR President and CEO James R. Locher III said, “Bob Kimmitt brings unsurpassed experience and expertise on national security matters to PNSR’s historic mission. Having worked over three decades at the highest levels of the national security system, Bob will provide powerful insights as to the needed direction and pace of reforms. His knowledge from his time at the Department of the Treasury will be especially helpful in strengthening PNSR’s efforts to ensure that financial and economic perspectives are fully integrated into national security decision-making.” Locher added, “I have the greatest respect for Bob Kimmitt’s intellect and judgment. I am delighted to have him join PNSR’s team.”

WASHINGTON, DC – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) today joined with Congressman Geoff Davis (R-KY) in announcing a bipartisan bill touted as “the most noteworthy [national security] reform since the 2004 reorganization of the intelligence community.” The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) applauds this effort, which aims to strengthen the development of interagency national security professionals.

Recent months have seen many calls for sweeping reforms to enable a whole-of-government approach, including those in the National Security Strategy and the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel’s report. The Skelton-Davis bill (H.R. 6249) would take a significant step toward answering these calls through the establishment of an Interagency National Security Professional Education, Administration, and Development System (INSPEAD System).

PNSR has been working for nearly four years to assist in the transformation of the antiquated national security system. Recent work has focused heavily on the personnel and human capital dimension. On June 25 of this year, the Department of Defense, acting as the Executive agent for the President, selected PNSR to conduct a study on interagency national security professionals, pursuant to a mandate in section 1054 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010. PNSR’s report is due to Congress with the president’s comments by December 1, 2010.

PNSR’s President and CEO, James R. Locher III, praised the bill, saying, “I commend Congressmen Skelton and Davis for their leadership in introducing this bill. Their willingness to work across party lines sets an example that I hope many others in Congress are prepared to follow. We need a broad coalition to stand up and put national security transformation in its rightful place as a priority that transcends partisan divides.”

WASHINGTON, DC – The new issue of Homeland Security Affairs — a journal of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) — contains an article on interagency organizations that is rooted in PNSR’s 2010 report, “Towards Integrating Complex National Missions: Lessons from the National Counterterrorism Center’s Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning.”

Daniel R. Langberg, article author and Deputy Director of the PNSR study, stated: “Recent reforms in the U.S. government counterterrorism community offer valuable insights into this challenge as well as lessons that should be considered in the context of other complex national security missions.”

The article highlights the fact that key functions such as strategy development, linking strategy to resources, planning, and assessments are not being fulfilled on a whole-of-government basis for several high priority national missions. Drawing on PNSR’s analysis of NCTC’s Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning, the author explores the potential of interagency organizations and teams as national level integrating mechanisms that can support the National Security Staff in fulfilling these and other functions on a whole-of-government basis for complex national security missions such as cybersecurity.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of the Secretary of Defense has awarded a contract to the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) to study and propose a system for the career development and management of interagency national security professionals. This study fulfills a requirement prescribed in section 1054 of the FY2010 National Defense Authorization Act.

The study is to support efforts to improve the quality of interactions among agencies engaged in national security and increase their overall interoperability — especially in times of national crisis from natural disasters or national security threats.

PNSR President and CEO James R. Locher III stated, “This is an important study for advancing national security reform. Interagency national security professional staff with the right skills and capacity to deal effectively with the strategic challenges of the 21st century are crucial. The way the system manages national security professionals greatly affects their career choices, including their willingness to work across departmental boundaries.”

PNSR will study current efforts at developing interagency national security professionals, professional development, coordination, incentives for collaboration, potential funding mechanisms, and the feasibility of integrating and coordinating military, state and local personnel in a national security professional development system. PNSR will coordinate its work with interagency representatives, the Office of Personnel Management, National Security Staff, and departments and agencies.

PNSR will bring a unique and fresh approach to the problem, applying the lessons of existing efforts, broad knowledge of the interagency environment, and a wealth of talent with experience throughout and beyond the government. Expert panels consisting of former officials who have led large-scale government reforms will advise the study.

In this study, PNSR will partner with PRTM, a leading management consulting firm that specializes in operational transformation. PRTM brings experience from the commercial and federal government sectors in performance management, strategic planning, and human capital.

Future scenarios are a time-tested tool to prepare for emerging challenges and to improve decision-making. PNSR’s Vision Working Group and CSIS joined together for the launching of a new book, which explores the role of foresight and visioning in government decision-making, and proposes a Center for Strategic Analysis and Assessment within the Executive Office of the President. This video includes the following discussions: Introduction and Welcome from Sheila Ronis, Director, MBA/Management Programs, Walsh College; The Project on National Security Reform with James R. Locher III, President and CEO, Project on National Security Reform; and The Vision Working Group Report: The Need to Establish The Center for Strategic Analysis and Assessment with Sheila Ronis.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) Independent Panel, a group of distinguished Americans with deep experience and expertise in the national security arena that includes Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) Guiding Coalition member John Nagl, offered a bold endorsement of national security reform in its report, released July 29. After an intense evaluation of the QDR with a view to the long term, the Panel called for sweeping reforms in the national security system. PNSR President and CEO James R. Locher III said, “I am heartened by the growing chorus for national security reform, especially coming from this high-level group representing the best of the national security establishment.”

The Report stated,”[T]he Panel notes with extreme concern that our current federal government structures – both executive and legislative, and in particular those related to security – were fashioned in the 1940s and they work at best imperfectly today… A new approach is needed.”

The Panel’s recommendations, similar to PNSR’s, included improving integration through legislation, providing education and incentives for personnel to work in “whole of government” assignments, creating a unified national security budget, establishing interagency teams, and instituting a new National Security Strategic Planning Process. The Panel also called for enhanced civilian “whole of government” capacity and reform of international security assistance.

The Panel’s recommendations are the second articulation of the need for organizational reform in recent months. The Obama administration’s National Security Strategy, released in May, gave prominent attention to the requirement for dramatic changes to national security institutions.

The Report used strong words to convey its findings: “The issues raised in the body of this Report are sufficiently serious that we believe an explicit warning is appropriate… The potential consequences for the United States of a ‘business as usual’ attitude towards the concerns in this Report are not acceptable.”

Locher said, “Reaching the kind of system envisioned by the QDR Independent Panel will be a difficult process taking years. The most logical starting points are a roadmap for change that starts with pilot projects and expands them, and an implementation plan for the goals laid out in this president’s National Security Strategy. The Independent Panel has issued a powerful call to action, and as always, PNSR is ready to assist.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Three Project on National Security Reform experts released the following statements on the Washington Post’s “Top Secret America” series:

James R. Locher II, President and CEO:
“It is not surprising that serious deficiencies and disconnects have been discovered in the intelligence community. The authority of the Director of National Intelligence is not commensurate with the position’s vast responsibilities and management challenges. The sixteen intelligence agencies remain too separate and independent to produce the unity of effort today’s intelligence work demands. The same problems plague the entire national security system, where the integrating mechanisms – the NSC and HSC systems – are institutionally weak compared to the power and influence of the departments and agencies. As long as we have antiquated organizational arrangements at the national and intelligence-community levels that are incapable of effectively dealing with the complexity and speed of today’s security environment, we are going to be disappointed, if not shocked, by the results.”

James M. Loy, Guiding Coalition:
“The recent series of articles in the Washington Post dubbed “Top Secret America” offers yet another example of the enormous difficulty we’re having adjusting to the challenges we must handle in post-9/11 world. The complexity index of the new security environment has been multiplied by a factor of some number still being determined. Cold War tools are not up to the task. The vertical silos of older times often were sufficient to protect America’s interests. Today’s challenges, however, demand a horizontal approach which is foreign to many but must be learned quickly. The definition of national security then was diplomacy, defense, and intelligence. Today’s challenges demand attention from experts in Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Treasury, just to name a few. Today’s challenges demand strategy development and planning guidance so as to efficiently protect our nation. We have to align resources to those strategy elements. We have to become good at multiple-node interagency-team alignments, and we must produce the skill sets in our leaders that emphasize collaboration, agility, and adaptability. The Post articles suggest we have a long way to go in achieving those goals and that we may be wasting valuable resources in and out of government. If you read the new National Security Strategy, you come to the same conclusion. It’s time to quit writing papers and talking. It’s time to get at the hard work of making the changes to our national security apparatus that will bring it into the 21st Century.”

Steven Trevino, Senior Advisor:
“The recent exposé on the US Intelligence Community illustrates some of the deep, systemic flaws in the overall U.S. National Security system. Assessing the evolution of the U.S. National Security system since 1947 through the various adjustments to address the shifting, changing nature of the threats and challenges we face also helps us to understand the how the system became what it is today. The common thread in any astute analysis points to a prevailing sub-optimization of how nation state resources are applied in a strategically integrated fashion to achieve predetermined outcomes. We lack a coherent strategic planning and implementation framework with which to guide the methodical engagement of increasingly limited resources to achieve strategically reasoned outcomes that take into account increasing complexity and accelerating change across the spectrum of vital national interests. The recently released National Security Strategy Report reflects a bold well reasoned view of America’s fast changing role in the world and how we as a nation can fulfill a strategic purpose that makes rational sense in light of growing resource constraints. What is missing in the Roadmap, Measures and Metrics as aspects of a comprehensive implementation plan that can align vision, purpose, and goals with resources of all kinds. This approach to an NSS strategic implementation plan can also serve as a means by which to better align our political and policy divisions and optimize the program management capabilities by the vast legion of contractors and dedicated government workers referenced in the Washington Post article. Adopting such an audacious approach will call for extraordinary leadership and very hard choices in how we as a struggling nation allocate our still considerable vast resources. How we commit to an implementation plan of this nature will serve as a strong indicator of how we will emerge in the world of the next decade.”

The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) is a nonpartisan organization working to modernize and improve the United States’ national security system to better protect the American people against 21st century dangers.

WASHINGTON, DC – PNSR President and CEO James R. Locher III testified today before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee in a hearing on “Interagency National Security Reform: Pragmatic Steps Towards a More Integrated Future.” In his testimony, Locher presented ten pragmatic near-term steps that can be taken to move forward on creating a more effective and functional interagency national security system (below).

Also appearing before the committee were: Dr. Gordon Adams, Distinguished Fellow, Henry L. Stimson Center; Dr. James R. Thompson, Associate Professor of Public Administration, University of Illinois – Chicago; and Mr. John Pendleton, Director of Force Structure and Planning Issues for the Defense Capabilities and Management Team, U.S. Government Accountability Office.

On the potential for action, Locher told Chairman Vic Snyder (D-AR) and other subcommittee members that “there is much that can—and must—be done today. Each recommended reform step would contribute significantly to integrating and improving the overall national security system. Collectively these steps are only part of the needed national security reform, but they are synergistic, practical, doable, and necessary.”

Pragmatic, Near-Term Steps for Consideration by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee

1. Require the president to submit an implementation plan for the organizational changes prescribed by the new National Security Strategy.

2. Require the assistant to the president for national security affairs to submit a plan for achieving the needed organizational capacity of the National Security Staff pursuant to the National Security Strategy.

3. Commission a ten-year road map for the entire national security reform agenda.

4. Require the president to conduct a Quadrennial National Security Review to establish the security goals and priorities of the United States.

5. Require the director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit illustrative, integrated budgets for two mission areas – combating terrorism and development – with the President’s Budget Request for FY2012.

6. Establish an interagency personnel system to create the proper incentives, education, and training for personnel assigned to interagency positions.

7. Establish a Center for Organizational Performance at the National Defense University or another institution that would undertake comprehensive assessments of organizational performance in the national security community.

8. Require the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to submit a plan on how they intend to improve the curricula of the military war colleges to provide an appropriate level of education on interagency affairs and national security reform.

9. Require the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to submit a plan for overcoming obstacles to improved performance by NCTC, especially by its Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning.

10. Hold joint hearings with a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (maybe the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, as it aligns with this subcommittee in its oversight and investigations jurisdiction) to examine interagency issues.
a. National Security Strategy
b. Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan
c. Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP)
d. Strategic communications programs of departments and agencies

WASHINGTON, DC – The new National Security Strategy includes many ideas from PNSR’s Forging a New Shield (November 2008) and Turning Ideas in Action (2009). These recommendations included broadening the scope of national security, balancing and integrating all elements of national power, updating our national security organizational capacity and processes for the 21st Century, adopting a longer view for national security, emphasizing the need for attention to the foundations of national power, aligning resources with strategy, embracing integrated whole-of-government approaches to national security missions, and promoting integration of homeland security and national security efforts to include collaboration with state, local, and tribal governments as well as nongovernmental entities and private enterprise.

PNSR comments:

• The National Security Strategy broadens the scope of national security to reflect the emerging challenges of the 21st Century and recognizes the interdependence between American competitiveness and American power in the world. PNSR Senior Advisor Nancy Bearg comments, ” The strategy greatly expands the concept of national security beyond the traditional concerns of the Defense and State Departments. Its attention to the foundations of national power – a sound fiscal policy, education, energy, science and technology, and health – is an important development, as is the emphasis of using all elements of national power.”

• PNSR Distinguished Fellow Jack LeCuyer notes: ” We have been given the substance of the new national security strategy that mirrors many PSNR recommendations. The new National Security Strategy clearly delineates what is different from the Cold War strategic environment and how our national security strategy must adapt to these changes. In so doing, the new strategy also sets forth a strong rationale for institutional reform of the national security interagency system to meet these challenges but does not reveal how the administration plans to put these ideas into practice to underwrite success.”

• In summary, PNSR President and CEO James R. Locher III said, ” The National Security Strategy envisions a bold transformation of the national security system. To achieve the organizational capacity to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, the Obama administration must initiate sweeping reforms to the current antiquated system. The administration now needs to provide the details of its reform initiatives and a roadmap on how it plans to achieve a modern national security system.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Colonel Christopher “Chris” Holshek, U.S. Army Reserve (Retired) , has joined the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) as a Senior Associate. PNSR will host his new blog, “Two Wheels and Two Questions,” as he rides across America on his Harley Davidson. Colonel Holshek’s blog will reflect on his experience in the Army Reserve and on America’s place in the world in the 21st century.

Colonel Holshek comes to PNSR after serving as a liaison from U.S. European Command (EUCOM) to the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he helped coordinate the Haitian earthquake relief. Colonel Holshek also served as EUCOM’s liaison to PNSR. Having served in Kosovo, Liberia, and Iraq, he possesses a wealth of experience from a career at the nexus of the three Ds: defense, diplomacy, and development.

After receiving his commission at New Mexico Military Institute, Colonel Holshek earned two Bachelor’s degrees at the George Washington University, majoring in International Affairs, German Language and Literature, and History. He earned a Master of Arts International Relations from Boston University in 1990, and a Master of Science in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in 2006.

In announcing Colonel Holshek’s arrival at PNSR, President and CEO James R. Locher III said, “Chris’ experience at the frontlines of the challenges of the 21st century, managing complex groups of stakeholders, and working across boundaries, provides PNSR with a valuable new member. He can offer personal insights on the challenges of adapting our national security institutions for the future.”